The Elizabethan Theatre: A Journey with Shakespeare
Drama in Elizabethan England wasn't much different than drama in the Golden Age of Greece. There
was still tragedy and comedy, scanty theatre props, and witty verse dialogue, but there were also
differences. Instead of an amphitheater filled with 15,000 we have a two-story Globe, crammed with a
cozy 2,300 and additional 800 groundlings. While actors still projected their voices, they ditched the
cumbersome megaphone masks and elevator shoes. No more skenes (scenic background or tall
buildings) made for deus ex machina. There were now two story stages complete with handy trap doors
(enter waiting ghost). Make way for the modern stage and William Shakespeare.
The Globe Theatre
William Shakespeare
Little is known about William Shakespeare's life. Born in Stratford-on Avon in 1564, educated at the local
grammar school, married to Anne Hathaway (eight years older and six months pregnant - Go Will!),
Shakespeare dashed off to London to earn fame and fortune as an actor, playwright, and Globe theatre
owner. He wrote thirty-three plays exploring the complex journey of human character in a richness of
language never equaled since. Here’s an interesting site about "The Bard."
Check out the Camtasia with audio on the Age of Shakespeare and his plays. The PPT alone is below.
For a witty compilation of Shakespeare's well-known sayings, check out the Clever Quotes below:
If you cannot understand my argument, and declare "It's Greek to me," you are quoting
Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare;
if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in
anger, if your wish is father to the thought, if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you
are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed
jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength,
hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knotted your brows, made virtue a necessity, insisted on
fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master),
laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold-comfort or too much of a good thing, if you
have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise - why, be that as it may, the more fool you, for
it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you
think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that truth will
out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you
suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop without rhyme or
reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth be known (for surely you have a tongue in
your head), you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me
packing, if you wish me dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the
devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord!
Tut, tut! for goodness' sake! what the dickens! but me no buts - it is all one to me, for you are
quoting Shakespeare.
And not to be outdone, check out the Shakespeare Insult Kit web site so you can dazzle your friends with
the Perfect Party Insult.
Hamlet – A Bit of This, A Bit of That
Ah, Hamlet -- The Big Kahuna, The Great One, The Melancholy Dane, The...well, you get the picture.
Whether the Prince of Denmark is in army fatigues, Renaissance robes, or drag (Yes, Sarah Bernhart
played Hamlet with a wooden leg to which the critic Max Beerholm proclaimed, "Her friends ought to
have restrained her."), the character and play have fascinated audiences for over 400 years.
Why? Because in Hamlet audiences see a reflection of themselves.
Early critics saw Hamlet as a victim of circumstances and later as an ineffectual soul with no strength for
revenge, citing his soliloquies as proof. Who cared about Hamlet's treatment of Ophelia, Polonius'
corpse, Claudius' chapel scene, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's brutal deaths? In the 19th century
Hamlet was a manic-depressive, his failure to take revenge leading to his self-contempt. Darn that
melancholy humor! But this view doesn't explain his jokes and attempts at action. Enter Dr. Sigmund
Freud and his Oedipus complex. In the early 20th century critics and directors alike saw Hamlet's
behavior as a desire to take his father's place in his mother's affections which triggers intense feelings of
guilt when his father dies. Sir Laurence Olivier's take on Hamlet looks to this approach.
Other critics, myself included, feel that Hamlet more so than Shakespeare's other plays,
presents a protagonist who is three dimensional. His actions and reactions can't be
pigeonholed or classified. Hamlet is not a character type of a specific person. He has
different impulses and moods. He knows the good and bad points of his revenge, but
revenge is not Christian and he's a Christian prince. Revenge is not rational, but he's a
philosopher. Revenge is not gentle, but he's a gentleman. Hamlet has qualms about the
idea of revenge and it's Hamlet's questioning of this, of who he is and his place in the
world, that makes this play great.
The Revenge Tragedy
That said, Shakespeare rooted his play in the revenge tragedy which relies heavily on
the Roman plays of Seneca (3 B.C.-A.D. 65).
In Roman tragedy (here comes those six steps again):
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The wronged hero is justified in his revenge.
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And the hero's revenge is aimed at someone who's equal in power and cunning (revenge is no
fun if there's no challenge!)
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What would we do without a gloomy atmosphere and supernatural elements - ghosts and spirits
and things that go bump in the night!
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Add the innocent wronged woman - She's always an obstacle to the hero achieving his revenge
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Mix with a counterplot - Always begun by the antagonist, the revenge engulfs the hero just as
his own vengeance is accomplished.
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Voila! The hero gets poetic justice on earth, but at the same time Heaven punishes him (read
violent death -- choke, choke, stab, stab) for committing murder.
Down the Garden Path
Where does that lead us? To Hamlet, a play in five acts. Briefly:
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Act I - Exposition - We see the rotten state of Denmark as the ghost appears and calls for
revenge.
Act II - Rising Action - Hamlet tries to discover the truth about the ghost's accusations.
Act III - Climax - Hamlet springs his "mousetrap" and catches proof of Claudius' guilt and kills
Polonius
Act IV - Falling Action - Claudius, not Hamlet, takes charge of events (the Laertes plot).
Act V - Catastrophe and Resolution - The consummation of everyone's bloody vengeance,
leaving only Horatio to tell the tale to young Fortinbras.
Hamlet, the philosopher, doubts and mocks, enabling Shakespeare to prolong the suspense for three
acts. When Hamlet does take revenge (Act III), he goofs and kills Polonius instead, generating the
subplot of Claudius and Laertes. Hamlet's natural hesitation allows Shakespeare to explore the meaning
of revenge on a philosophical as well as a psychological level that ultimately touches the larger question
-- the meaning of life.
Deep Stuff
So...how will we cover this huge play? Not scene by scene - we're near the end of our semester's journey
-- but theme by theme, such as revenge, playing (seeming), corruption (rottenness), madness, love,
kingship, and duty. Within each theme we'll look at key scenes.
Big topics from a big play.
"Right," you say. "You expect me to read the whole play and 'get' it and discuss these themes in detail?
It's not even written in English!"
Yep. I do expect you to actually read the play and if you're not used to reading plays written in the
1600's, the language (Yes, it is English!) will challenge you.
"Help! Where's the video? Anyone seen the Cliff Notes?
Before you dash down to the corner Blockbuster for Mel Gibson's Hamlet or Annie's Book Swap for the
$1.50 Cliff Notes -- Read the Play!
At first you'll look up every other word -- time stands still -- and you're only on the second page, but
after a while the language becomes easier to understand. You can picture Shakespeare's words in your
mind. You can hear the characters speak. Try getting together a few friends to act out the play - a great
excuse for a party. Or if it's a solo act, say the words out loud. Shakespeare's language has a beauty and
genius all its own. Some of the plays on words, puns, and phrasing can only be fully appreciated when
you hear them. Remember, the importance of sound to poetry? -- Same here.
The writer and critic C.S. Lewis wrote in "The Prince or the Poem" that we readers wouldn't be moved if
Hamlet spoke in prose, but through Shakespeare's sheer poetry of genius, we read Hamlet and are
moved because the words "describe so well a certain spiritual region through which most of us have
passed."
If you're still having trouble, then read the Cliff Notes.
So...
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Step I - Read the play Hamlet.
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Step II - Rent the DVD Hamlet starring Mel Gibson. If you can't find a copy at the corner video
store, I've placed a copy on reserve at the Bedford library. See separate doc for the Notes on
Mel Gibson version
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OR
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Step II – Rent the DVD of Hamlet starring Kenneth Branagh. It’s brilliant and follows the play
quite faithfully. Watching the DVD with the subtitles on and your text open in front of you, with
the remote control at the ready, is a great way to “read” the play and experience the physicality
of it at the same time.
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Step III – If using the Gibson version, consult my notes, which are in a separate attachment.
They'll help you notice certain themes, actions, and symbols in this production and the play.
We'll be discussing them later.
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Step IV - Download the free version of Real Player if you haven't already. We'll be looking at
scenes from several productions and how different directors and actors approach Hamlet (Mel
Gibson, Sir Laurence Olivier, Ethan Hawke, and Kenneth Branagh).
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Step V - Enjoy. Think. Relate. (Experience. Interpret. Evaluate.) Hamlet is a big play, but it's a
play for everyone, whatever the level of literary expertise. You'll be moved.
Themes to Live and Die By: Appearance vs. Reality, Kingship, Disease, Ambition, and Love
Let’s start at the beginning…
The play Hamlet is full of questions, and as Maynard Mack observes full of riddles and uncertainty. In
fact, “Hamlet lies closer to the illogical logic of life than other Shakespearean tragedies.” It’s a cold night.
“Who’s there?” The guards, others, even Horatio, all grounded and experienced men, doubt what they
have seen. Is the apparition a ghost? A demon? Is it old King Hamlet? As men wait for the ghost to
appear, they recap past events – All is not well in Denmark. Young Hamlet has killed King Fortinbras; the
great chain of being is broken; harmony is disrupted. The throne is now Old Hamlet’s. But wait! He’s
now dead and his brother Claudius has not only claimed the crown but Queen Gertrude as well. Fast
worker! “The funeral meats did coldly furnish for the marriage tables” (I.ii.180-1). Where’s that leave
our favorite warrior/philosopher? Just like the kingship, he’s disjointed and out of frame (I.ii.20).
See the themes coming together?
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What’s real and what’s not - What “seems” to be true?
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Who’s the true king? And what makes a good king?
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What’s wrong with Denmark? Why’s it rotten and
diseased?
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How strong is love? Is it always tempered by self-interest?
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What’s life? Revenge?
First Soliloquy – A Step in the Right Direction…Not!
Questions...Questions which Hamlet begins to answer in his first soliloquy.
Let’s take a look.
”O, that this too sullied flesh would melt,…
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!…
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world! (I.ii.129-30, 133-35)
He’s contemplating suicide! This world’s corrupt, an “unweeded garden
(I.ii.135). But why hesitate? According to C. S. Lewis in Death in Hamlet,
Hamlet hesitates not from a fear of physical death, “but of a fear of being
dead,” This paralyzes his will to act and introduces the uncertainty of life, “the unknown X in the sum.”
T. S. Eliot thinks this hesitation and lack of clear textual lines, which explain Hamlet’s hesitation, are a
grave fault of the play, but most critics feel that through Hamlet’s speeches and images we see and feel
his despair; we feel his fear that this life may be an illusion -- all “mixed with the bottomless doubt about
what may follow” (Lewis) when he’s “shuffled off this mortal coil” (III.i.67).
While other Shakespearian characters “think of dying: no other one thinks…of being dead,” giving the
play a “quality of darkness and misgiving” (Lewis). The world of Hamlet is a world where all have lost
their way. Hamlet only regains his way at the sparrow speech. “There’s a special providence in the fall of
a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come…the readiness is all (V.ii.194).
Little Boy Lost
Why does Hamlet first lose his way and wish for death?
A. C. Bradley believes it’s his mother's hasty marriage. Her behavior is so "rank and gross" that Hamlet
transfers this disgust to Ophelia. "Frailty they name is woman! (I.ii.146). Further, Ophelia's lie to Hamlet
seals his poisoned mind against women.
Hawke and Stiles (Ophelia) Kline and Ivey (Gertrude)
Hamlet's reaction to his mother, his reaction to the fear of death, his reaction to the spirit's (father?
demon?) call for vengeance, and his resolve "to put [on] an antic disposition" (I.v.172), all cause him to
cry, "The time is out of joint. 0 curse'd sprite/ That ever I was born to set it right!" (I..v.189-190).
Little wonder Hamlet flithers and dithers, playing, pretending, spying for "sith nor th' exterior nor the
inward man/ Resembles that is was. What it should be, (II.ii.6-7).
Still able to quip and quote with Polonius (see library and fishmonger scene), Hamlet has lost all his
mirth. Life seems meaningless. Man is just a "piece of work" (II.ii.285) and delights him not. Why? Well...
if life has no purpose and is meaningless, why seek revenge? So, as David Bevington notes in the
introduction of Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, Hamlet's previous thoughts of suicide are
logical because any action appears meaningless.
Still, Hamlet must try to determine the truth of the ghost's accusations. He must play at being "mad
north-north-west" (II.ii.345). He must force himself to act. Calling himself a coward, an ass, a "John-adreams who is unpregnant of my cause" (II.i.517), isn't going to help. The answer? "The play's the thing/
wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king" (II.i.557). Finally, a plan. Action at last.
Third Soliloquy and The Director's Cut - Olivier, Burton, Campbell, Hawke, and Gibson video links
Is Hamlet always so inactive?
No! According to Gertrude, Ophelia, and even Hamlet himself, he fences (and later feels he'll win at the
odds against Laertes); he's a warrior, a commander of troops, a thinker, and beloved by the people.
Ethan Hawke as Hamlet in the Action video section of Blockbuster
If Hamlet's got a plan, why then, the third soliloquy -"To be, or not
to be, that is the question" (III.i.56)? Where's our playwright and
director? Why suddenly has the philosopher returned asking if life
is worth living? Hamlet wants death, "Tis a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished" (III.i.64-5). But here
again we have the unknown, the X, "The undiscover'd country from whose bourn/ No traveler returns"
(III.i.79-80). And so Hamlet lives through the present he knows in light of the future he fears. "Thus
conscience does make cowards of us all" (III.i.84). For a man who sees the many sides of a question,
inaction is no surprise. For a man who doubts, fears, and wallows in self-disgust, unkindness to others is
no surprise as well. Ophelia, caught in a simple lie, is ordered to a nunnery (notice punconvent/brothel), and eventually driven mad. Ironic that a man who demands honesty is so dishonest
himself (acting/seeming). Claudius is right, "Madness in great ones must not unwatched go" (III.i.180).
Below are different video versions of the same scene.
Notice how each actor approaches the role. What parts of Hamlet's personality does each actor
emphasize? How does each director stage the scene? Lights it? Cuts it? Notice how the directors switch
the placement of the second and third soliloquies. Does this weaken or strengthen the play for you?
The first video clip is of Sir Laurence Olivier in his Oscar winning performance of Prince
Hamlet. Filled with Freudian touches, Olivier's performance relies heavily on symbolism.
Check out Sigmund Freud's essay "On Repression in Hamlet" (1689).
Two more straight forward versions are Richard Burton's 1964 rendition and David Tennant’s efforts:
Richard Burton
David Tennant
The third video clip is of Ethan Hawke performing the troubled Dane, well at
least a troubled twenty-something New York corporate prince. Very
different. Very media driven. The link includes more than the "To be" scene
because I want you to look at how the directors and actors piece together
the themes of seeming, love, honesty, and revenge in a media based society.
And not to be outdone -- Kenneth Branagh, the 19th century, and his magic
mirrors.
Let's not forget to include ol'Mel.
For a treat at the end of the first week’s discussion of Hamlet, here’s one of my favorite comics – Calvin.
And for sheer fun…Blackadder
Shakespeare Sketch…A Small Rewrite.
And yes, that’s High Laurie (House) as the Bard.